The Susan Watkins Mystery? Solved?

Clyde Fitch is known to drama circles as the first American to have his plays published. While he was born in Elmira, NY in 1865 he grew up in Schenectady’s Stockade district and attended a private school taught by Anne Wood at 145 Front Street.

He went to Amherst College at 18 and received a BA degree in literary arts, not science, which he did not like. He and another student Barry Bulkley were editors of the school’s weekly college paper. Fitch concentrated on the poetical work for the paper. His work was in demand by Life and other weeklies and his money made from that writing helped defray the cost of school. His friend also said that Fitch “As a female impersonator in amateur theatricals was unsurpassed. In college he was very popular, despite a certain efficiency of manner and speech which were marked, but were unnoticed when one knew the man. No one was more keen in his interest in manly sports than Fitch and he enjoyed the affection of the entire college.”

Clyde Fitch (standing between two female classmates) in last row posing around 1878-80 in Ms. Alice Wood’s private school at 145 Front Street. Source: Don Rittner

Here lies the mystery. Fitch went on to become the first American playwright to have his his plays published and became one of the most successful and famous playwrights in two decades in the early 20th century. He had five plays running on Broadway at the same time. He wrote over 60 plays, including 36 originals ones. Most writers have assumed he was gay and there is some evidence from letters between him and Oscar Wilde that he may have had a fling. One article in the paper describes his flamboyant nature.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram September 16, 1909.

Meanwhile, back in 1834 Governor Joseph Yates commissioned a local cabinet maker to create a dollhouse for his granddaughter Susan Watkins of Schenectady who had come to live with them at 17 Front Street after their mother (his daughter) Anna Alida Yates had died. Susan was five when the doll house was made. The doll house still exists and you can see it in the Schenectady County historical society. Susan died at the age of 17 in 1846 according to their records.

Fitch died of Appendicitis in 1909 in France and brought back to America in 1910. He did not have a will so his estate went to his father William G. Fitch who was in Hartford, Connecticut.

An article in the Wilkes Barre Times dated September 6, 1909 adds to the mystery. In it a childhood friend of Fitch, unidentified in the story, relates that the reason why Fitch never married was the fact that he was in love with his childhood sweetheart Susan Watkins who died in in 1884. Fitch had visited her grave whenever he was visiting Schenectady. According to the paper, “A mound in Vale Cemetery in “Old Dorp” known on the map as Schenectady, is the reason for Fitch dying a bachelor, and under that mound was put, twenty five years ago the body of Susan Watkins, the boyhood love of Fitch.” The story ends that only a “intimate few knew of his buried hopes.”

Here lies the problem. According to the Historical Society, Susan died at 17 in 1846. There is no burial record of Susan Watkins at Vale. The head of Vale found that there is a Charles Watkins (died in 1865), Emma (1886), James (1864) and a John (1876), but no Susan. According to the newspaper article Fitch’s childehood Susan died in 1885 and if it is the same Susan it would have made her 56 when she died. Fitch was 44 when he died. The numbers don’t seem to add up.

Wilkes Barre Times 9-6-1909, describing Susan Watkins.

So the question comes back to this. Where is Susan? If she is not at Vale, where is she? Is this the same Susan Watkins of Fitch’s heart who according to some think he was gay but to others lifelong in love with his childhood sweetheart?

The mystery continues.

Addendum

Chris Hunter, archivist for the Schenectady Museum found a Susan Watkins buried in St. George’s Church burial ground. She may have been interred in the old Green Street cemetery at first and then transferred to St. George’s and the unidentified friend in the newspaper article may have simply remembered the wrong cemetery. The listing at St. George’s lists

St George's Burial notation of Susan Watkins. Source: Burial Book.

Susan Teresa Watkins death record as June 12, 1885. Next to her death is noted “In te domine speravi” which is Latin for “In thee, O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy justice.” Since this appears to be the only Susan Watkins buried in Schenectady and the death date matches up pretty well with the unidentified newspaper account, we can assume this is our Susan. The question still remains if Fitch was homosexual then why was his carrying this torch for Susan all these years?

Case Solved?

My friend and colleague Chris Hunter, archivist for the Schenectady Museum found the following information. I will add what he wrote:

“Susan is interred in a vault in the Bronx with her grandfather Governor Yates. They were moved there from the Green Street Cemetery in 1889.

Answering one question often leads to a journey of new questions. After Susan D. Watkins died in 1846, she was interred in the Yates family vault adjoining the old Green Street Cemetery, joining her grandfather, New York Governor Joseph C. Yates, who had died in 1837. Eventually 13 members of the Yates family were placed in the vault.

Governor Joseph C. Yates was Schenectady’s first mayor in 1798, a New York State Senator, a judge for the State Supreme Court, and governor from 1823-1824.

As the Stockade neighborhood continued to grow, pressure grew to move the old cemetery. In 1879 the Green Street Cemetery was closed and the bodies and gravestones were moved to Vale Cemetery near the State Street entrance, where the stones are still preserved today. The Yates vault remained only two blocks from Yates’ former home on Front Street for another 10 years. In 1889, Joseph Yates’ daughter Josepha Jane Neill, at the age of 77, decided to erect a new family vault closer to her home in New York City. She settled on St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, located in the Bronx. On December 3 and 4 1889, family members Edward Watkins and Charles Yates oversaw the removal of 13 caskets from the vault. The remains included Joseph Yates, his three wives (he was twice a widower), two of his three daughters, one son-in-law, and six grandchildren. Ten of the caskets had nameplates; the other three had lost the nameplates over the years.

After 60 years, the event had been largely forgotten. City Historian William Efner and Yates descendant William C. Yates located Joseph Yates’ grave at St. Peters. Being a re-internment into a private vault, the official burial register contained no record of the internment, and church officials sifting through paper records eventually found an unofficial transcription of the nameplates. A casual visitor to St. Peter’s would notice a large vault with the name Neill etched above the entrance, they would see no mention of the name Yates or that there is a New York governor buried there. Josepha Jane Neill died in February 1890, just over two months after the move, and just two days after a relative, Anna Neill. Probably because of those events, proper recognition was never given to the Yates presence in the cemetery.

Those that were moved included:

Governor Joseph C. Yates, died March 19, 1837, age 64 years, 4 months, and 8 days.

His wives:

Ann Ellice Yates, daughter of Dr. Adams of Schenectady; wife of Joseph C. Yates, February 7, 1754 to November 15, 1793 age 39 years

Maria Kane Yates, second wife of Joseph C. Yates (no nameplate)

Ann Elizabeth DeLancey Yates, January 31, 1771 to January 4, 1864

His daughters:

Helen Maria Paige, died January 5, 1829, age 31 years and 4 months

Anna Alida Watkins, no dates

Son-in-law

Samuel M. Neill, September 25, 1807 to April 12, 1865

Grandchildren:

Susan D. Watkins, September 6, 1828 to March 4, 1845

Joseph C.Y. Watkins, September 1831 to June 6, 1870

Ann Elizabeth Neill, August 18, 1833 to June 15, 1841

Mary M. Neill, March 14, 1835 to January 30, 1836

Anna E Yates, (no nameplate, just a note she had died young)

John Daniel Watkins, son of Daniel Watkins and A.A. Watkins (no nameplate)

Interred directly into the Neill vault:

Josepha Jane Yates Neill, daughter of Joseph C. Yates, died February 13, 1890, age 78 years

Anna Josepha Yates Neill,, died February 11, 1890

Joseph C.Y. Neill, died in London, England, May 30, 1839 to February 17, 1893

John DeLancey Neill, Died August 1891, age 49”

Great job Chris. This of course solves two mysteries. Now we know where Governor Yates is buried.

Thank you for the article and the work. The “son-in-law” may be John Daniel Watkins (aka Daniel Watkins,) husband of Anna Alida, father of the Susan who died at 16. This is the first lead to his burial site.